- This event has passed.
Fauvism and Expressionism: The Power of Colour
In the second half of the nineteenth century, from the Impressionists to Gauguin, van Gogh, and Munch, artists had used colours in an increasingly liberated way. Continuing this trend, some artists in the first two decades of the twentieth century painted with strong saturated colours, leaving the audience baffled and shocked. It felt like a chromatic explosion. Indeed, Derain did compare his pure colours to “sticks of dynamite”, meant to burst with light and expression. During this study day we will look into Fauvism and Expressionism, as well as the emergence of abstract art.
TUTOR
Caroline Levisse has a Ph.D. in Art History at the University of Paris 8. She lectures on modern and contemporary art for the WEA. Her research work is concerned with the relations between art and religion in Northern and Western Europe today.
9.45 Registration
10.00 Fauvism: Colour for its own sake: We will start with Matisse, Derain, and Vlaminck, whose bold paintings scandalised the Parisians in 1905.
11.00 Tea/coffee
11.30 German Expressionism: “Die Brücke” & “The Blue Rider”. Starting in 1905 in Dresden and Munich, artists such as Kirchner, Nolde, Kandinsky, Munter, and Marc reacted to the uncertainties of the time by creating powerfully expressive paintings.
12.30 Lunch by Daisy’s
1.30 The path to abstraction: Focusing on Delaunay and Kandinsky, we will follow Fauvism and Expressionism towards their logical next step: abstract art. And we will see how colour became an expressive language of its own.
2.30 Close
